Transform those cluttered counters! 5 easy ways to make over your kitchen

2014-08-14T15:17:00.000Z

Country Living

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The kitchen is the heart of the home, but with stacks of dishes, an overflowing trash can and cookbooks piled high, it can also be a disaster zone.

It’s time to control the chaos, and in its book, “500 Kitchen Ideas: Style, Function & Charm,”Country Living magazine shares ideas for creating a kitchen you will actually want to be in. Here are five tips from the book that can help the messiest kitchen reign it in and become a fun and inspiring space.

Create a slick trash receptacle

Today

Retrofit a lower cabinet with a sliding shelf for a trash can, using drawer glides and plywood. Then pin up items you want kept out of sight — like rubber gloves, sponges and plastic bags — on the inside of a cabinet door. To do this, using hot glue, affix magnets to the back of plain clothespins and glue the magnets directly to the door.

Use aside table to hold kitchen essentials

Today

There’s no law that says you must have a built-in cabinet next to a stove. Here, a lively little red end table happily holds cookbooks, cutting boards and bowls.

Collections of clear vintage jars, bottles and canisters make great containers to store all sorts of dry ingredients for cooking and baking. Look for them at flea markets, yard sales and online. Here, turquoise-colored canning jars filled with dried beans and grains make a pretty display in this glass-front cabinet.

To add a personal statement to your kitchen, consider a chalkboard-paint backsplash. Fearing upper cabinets would overpower her galley kitchen, this homeowner opted instead for simple white planks and custom brackets set against a playful chalkboard-painted wall.